City tackles domestic violence

Collaboration and streamlined protocols for dealing with domestic violence are helping the city of Phoenix use limited resources more effectively, Mayor Greg Stanton said last week.

"In the past, we probably weren't as trained as we should have been," Stanton said. "Now all our officers are fully trained to get the victim away from the abuser right away and then begin the whole prosecutorial system."

Stanton made the comments after joining other area leaders at the city of Phoenix Family Advocacy Center for a news conference Thursday marking Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

He said the Phoenix Police Department receives about 42,000 domestic-violence calls a year and generates 12,000 reports.

"The volume of these reports is overwhelming, and limited resources make it impossible to adequately respond to every single one," Stanton said. "There has to be a better way, a more collaborative way to approach the issue."

Avondale Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers said a project by the Maricopa Association of Governments is reworking how the criminal-justice system handles domestic-violence cases.

"We are all searching for more-effective ways to reduce the trauma and cost associated with domestic violence," she said. "This project provides that solution."

Phoenix updated its protocol for police officers dealing with domestic-violence cases. Stanton said officers responding to calls now look for controlling behaviors and patterns of violence in addition to signs of physical abuse.

"These indicators allow resources to be focused on the cases most likely to end up in more serious incidents of violence, even homicide," he said.

More-effective law-enforcement techniques give prosecutors a better chance of moving these cases quickly and effectively through the courts, Stanton said.

MAG, in collaboration with the O'Connor House, also released an interactive Web map showing locations of advocates who help crime victims.

Lucia Howard, co-chair of the Avon Program for Women and Justice at the O'Connor House, said the effort also addresses the fact that many of the advocates go into the field with no training.

"Victims can't stand alone and be expected to face attorneys and cross examinations and depositions to bring abusers to justice," Howard said. "They need help. That's one of the important roles that victim advocates can help in, if they are properly trained in the judicial system."